A king of Judah during the divided kingdom, known for his religious reforms.
About Josiah
The sixteenth king of Judah's southern kingdom. Josiah ruled from 640 to 609 BC. He was a godly man and was very different from his grandfather, Manasseh, and his father, Amon. The Bible says that no other king before or after him obeyed the law of Moses as fully as he did (2 Kings 23:25). The Greek form of his name is Josias. It appears in Matthew 1:10–11 in the King James Version.
The Era of Josiah
When Josiah became king in 640 BC, the world was about to change. After the great Assyrian king Ashurbanipal died in 633 BC, weaker rulers took over. Because of this, the empire became unstable. In 626 BC, Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, took control of Babylon and began the rise of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
The Babylonians soon formed an alliance with the Medes. Together they attacked the Assyrian Empire and destroyed the city of Nineveh in 612 BC. As Babylon gained power, Assyria lost control over the region that had once been the northern kingdom of Israel. Their pressure on Judah also decreased during this time.
After Nineveh fell, the Assyrians moved their capital to Haran. In 610 BC, Babylonian and Scythian forces defeated them there. Pharaoh Neco II of Egypt then chose to support the weakened Assyrians. In the late spring of 609 BC, he marched through Judah. Josiah tried to stop him, but Neco defeated and killed him before continuing his military campaign in Syria.
Before Josiah became king, Judah had turned to serious idol worship during the reign of Manasseh from 697 to 642 BC. People worshiped Baal, Molech, and other pagan gods. Practices connected to magic and astrology also spread throughout the land. A false altar even stood in the temple in Jerusalem, and some people offered human sacrifices to these deities near the city. The nation had become deeply corrupt.
Manasseh changed some of these practices late in his life, but the people returned to their former behavior when his son Amon ruled from 642 to 640 BC. In 640 BC, officials in Amon’s household killed him. The “people of the land” then made Josiah king (2 Kings 21:26; 22:1; 2 Chronicles 33:25–34:1).
Josiah's Reform Efforts
Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He likely had advisers who encouraged him to follow God. By the time he was sixteen, he chose on his own to seek the God of his ancestor David (2 Chronicles 34:3).
When he was 20, he became very concerned about the idolatry in Judah. He began a major effort to remove the pagan high places, sacred groves, and images from Judah and Jerusalem. His opposition to idolatry was so strong that he opened the tombs of pagan priests and burned their bones on the pagan altars before destroying the altars themselves.
Josiah continued his reform work beyond the borders of Judah. He focused especially on the worship center at Bethel, where Jeroboam had set up false worship. Josiah destroyed the altar and the high place there and burned the bones of the priests on the altar to make the site unclean (2 Kings 23:15–18). This fulfilled the prophecy in 1 Kings 13:1–3. He did the same things in the rest of the kingdom of Samaria (2 Kings 23:19–20).
When Josiah was 26, he began a project to cleanse and repair the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kings 22:3). Shaphan, the king’s administrative assistant, organized the work, and Hilkiah the priest supervised the repairs. During the restoration, Hilkiah found the Book of the Law. Its exact form and contents are not known today. It is possible that, during the difficult years under Manasseh, someone had tried to destroy the word of God. In any case, very few people in Judah knew the Scriptures at that time.
When Shaphan read the Book of the Law to Josiah, the king became deeply troubled by the warnings of punishment for turning away from God. He sent a group of officials to ask Huldah the prophetess what these warnings meant for Judah. Huldah replied that God’s judgment would certainly come on the land because of the people’s sins. However, she also told Josiah that, because he had a humble and devoted heart, the punishment would not happen during his lifetime.
The ruler gathered a large group of leaders and people so they could hear the Book of the Law read in public. These parts of the law explained their responsibilities toward God. Then the ruler and the people made an agreement before God that they would obey his commandments.
The king understood the importance of preserving true worship of the one God. This inspired him to carry out even more serious efforts to cleanse the temple and the city of Jerusalem. He removed the objects used in Baal worship, the horses and chariots that earlier kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, and the group of men who took part in sexual acts as part of pagan worship near the temple. He also destroyed the shrines that had been built in the days of Solomon. In addition, he worked hard to remove the pagan shrines and high places in every town of Judah (2 Kings 23:4–14).
The Death of Josiah
The exact reason Josiah opposed Pharaoh Neco’s march through Judah is not known. He may have wanted to stop Neco from helping the Assyrians, or he may have wanted to protect Judah’s independence. During the battle, Josiah was severely wounded and later died. Jeremiah and all the people mourned for him (2 Chronicles 35:25). Their grief was great, because they had lost a godly king, and the judgment God delayed during his lifetime would come upon the nation only a few years later.
See also Chronology of the Bible (Old Testament); Israel, History of.
Family Relationships
- Parents
- Amon (Son of Manasseh), Jedidah
- Partners 3
- Hamutal, Zebidah, A Wife of Josiah
- Children 4
- Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Zedekiah, Shallum (1 Chronicles 3:15)
Key References
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath.
During Josiah’s reign, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched up to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went out to confront him, but Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo.
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years.
Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah,
All Scripture References (49)
1 Kings (1)
And he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, “O altar, O altar, this is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David, and upon you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’”
2 Kings (12)
But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.
And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah reigned in his place.
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath.
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the scribe, Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the house of the LORD, saying,
And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the hillside, and he sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar to defile it, according to the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who had foretold these things.
Just as Josiah had done at Bethel, so also in the cities of Samaria he removed all the shrines of the high places set up by the kings of Israel who had provoked the LORD to anger.
But in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, this Passover was observed to the LORD in Jerusalem.
Furthermore, Josiah removed the mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to carry out the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the LORD.
As for the rest of the acts of Josiah and all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
During Josiah’s reign, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched up to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went out to confront him, but Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo.
From Megiddo his servants carried his body in a chariot, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.
Then Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and he changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, where he died.
1 Chronicles (2)
Amon his son, and Josiah his son.
The sons of Josiah: Johanan was the firstborn, Jehoiakim the second, Zedekiah the third, and Shallum the fourth.
2 Chronicles (15)
But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years.
And Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands belonging to the Israelites, and he required everyone in Israel to serve the LORD their God. Throughout his reign they did not turn aside from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.
Then Josiah kept the Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month.
From his own flocks and herds Josiah contributed 30,000 lambs and goats plus 3,000 bulls for the Passover offerings for all the people who were present.
So on that day the entire service of the LORD was carried out for celebrating the Passover and offering burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the command of King Josiah.
No such Passover had been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed with the priests, the Levites, all Judah, the Israelites who were present, and the people of Jerusalem.
In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, this Passover was observed.
After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco king of Egypt marched up to fight at Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to confront him.
Josiah, however, did not turn away from him; instead, in order to engage him in battle, he disguised himself. He did not listen to Neco’s words from the mouth of God, but went to fight him on the Plain of Megiddo.
There the archers shot King Josiah, who said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded!”
So his servants took him out of his chariot, put him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. And Josiah was buried in the tomb of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.
Then Jeremiah lamented over Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers recite laments over Josiah. They established them as a statute for Israel, and indeed they are written in the Book of Laments.
As for the rest of the acts of Josiah and his deeds of loving devotion according to what is written in the Law of the LORD—
Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father.
Jeremiah (16)
The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah,
and through the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.
Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there.
For this is what the LORD says concerning Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah but has gone forth from this place: “He will never return,
Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’
This is the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
“From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—twenty-three years—the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.
At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came from the LORD:
At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD.
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
“Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you during the reign of Josiah until today.
Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a fast before the LORD was proclaimed to all the people of Jerusalem and all who had come there from the cities of Judah.
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made Zedekiah son of Josiah the king of Judah, and he reigned in place of Coniah son of Jehoiakim.
This is the word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch son of Neriah when he wrote these words on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:
concerning Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates River by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah:
Zephaniah (1)
This is the word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah:
Matthew (2)
Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah,
and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.